The Detroit Afrikan Funkestra is an open-air opera in three acts. Produced by the Detroit Afrikan Music Institution for the Detroit Design Festival, the Funkestra's first performance took place in the North End against the picturesque and unlikely backdrop of the Oakland Avenue Urban Farm. Amongst kale and hibiscus plants, twelve musicians representing a breadth of genres recounted an incomplete history of music in the city.

The scenography, much like the opera itself, is a playful smashup. Sampling a number of existing and disappeared performance stages from music venues in the neighborhood, the Funkestra set is a nostalgia-free reconfiguration calibrated to look both familiar and renewed. Using simple materials – plywood, house paint, glitter, and hardware – the stage is conceived as a subliminal supergraphic, hinting at the underexposed narratives associated with the neighborhood context.